Page156 - Week 01 - Thursday, 3 December 2020
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Several schools also have had LED lights installed to make sure that they are cooler and more sustainable. Calwell Primary School’s admin area has been upgraded with a new disability toilet as well. The preschool and the hall are also having the heating system upgraded to electric. Torrens is seeing improved disability access. Hawker College will see new classrooms and upgraded lifts. Weetangera Primary School will see existing spaces refurbished. UC Kaleen High will have new learning spaces for small groups. These are just a few examples of the work that is happening over the summer holidays, getting ready for the 2021 school year.
MS ORR: Minister, with Canberra’s growing population, how will the government ensure that families have access to new and better schools?
MS BERRY: As I said, the population growth in the ACT is faster than we have ever seen, and over the next four years that means that there will be significant infrastructure projects across our city.
In the north we will be adding additional primary school capacity in north Gungahlin, a new high school in Kenny and a new high school in Taylor. We will also be building additional college capacity in north Canberra as well.
In the south the government will upgrade and expand Narrabundah College. There has already been a lot of consultation and planning there and there are also going to be new, expanded schools in Woden and of course Molonglo, which I just talked about.
All of the new schools this government builds will have zero emissions that maximise energy efficiency.
ACT Policing—occupational health and safety
MR HANSON: My question is to the minister for police. Minister, Comcare has recently ordered ACT Policing to correct health and safety hazards at its Belconnen traffic operations centre because the building breaches work health and safety laws. This comes more than two years after the danger was identified. The Australian Federal Police Association said the situation had been managed poorly, warning that many other buildings occupied by ACT Policing were also defective and in need of repair. Minister, why are so many ACT Policing buildings defective and in need of repair?
MR GENTLEMAN: I thank Mr Hanson for his question and his interest in the safety of ACT Policing. We have funded $9 million in the budget for upgrades to policing accommodation across the territory and we will be rolling that out. In this particular circumstance, the TOC is an older building which has, as you have heard, some issues for workplace safety for the staff. We are working through those issues to ensure that we can remedy them. There are some that can be remedied in quite a timely manner, I think. But there are some others that are less able to be remedied in such a timely manner and we have to take careful thought about how we can work on those.
Mr Hanson: It has been a few years now.
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